Five For Fighting
by greenleaf-in-bloom
Summary: Remus Lupin. Ginny Weasley. Mundungus Fletcher. Firenze the Outcast. Igor Karkaroff.
1. The Drawing

**Five for Fighting  
  
Part One**

_Moony_

The taunts chased after him from the first day at Hogwarts, and would until the last, whether or not James and Sirius noticed. There were always a few.

His friends tried to protect him from them, but he was a recluse fellow, and that was bound to draw attention. And they rarely noticed when he took walks at night. James had, once in a while, and had offered him the Cloak. No. Of course he hadn't accepted it. He liked doing things on his own. If he accepted help, then he owed them a favor. He owed them too much already.

He was glad to be the one to do the kitchen runs at night, to go and steal some food and bring it back to them. They never noticed that he took longer than when James did it, but probably attributed it to the fact he had to sneak more, without the Cloak.

He was a quiet boy.

He wasn't a fighter.

Not until they took his friends away.

_The Shadow_

She was a copy, taking a little bit from each of her brothers. Fred and George had lent her their ruthlessness, Ron had given her the protectiveness and bravery, Percy the intensity, Bill the charisma, Charlie the gentleness and honesty and pride.

She had very little of her own.

_You've got your grandmother's eyes, dear - your father's nose - your aunt's smile - your cousin's chin - your mother's fire - you've got your brothers' skill, Weasley, you'll be a good Seeker -_

All she wanted was to take something for her own.

But everything had been someone else's first. The only thing she had was that she was a girl, and so she could have dolls and teasets and her mother would have to get them just for her. No sharing.

But she _hated_ those things, hated them with a passion. And so she would set them down in the attic and have haunted parties with them. And when the ghoul wouldn't stop banging and making mischeif, she would yell at him and start throwing the dolls, and their little china heads would break against the walls.

Ginny Weasley took something of her own.

She became the first to fight.

_The Theif_

He had always been a scoundrel. He was No Good.

This was what they said, what they muttered. But it Wasn't True. He was drunk most of the time. That was true. And he stole things, and tried to get good deals. But that wasn't meanness, or sliminess. That was revenge...

Sirius had always taken him in when he needed it, and Sirius could use his help. He liked being useful, even if the others didn't understand. Even if Sirius was the only one would could use his connections as an advantage.

Dung knew the tunnels, the secret ways, knew who had done what dirty crime and who was suspected to be in with You-Know-Who.

He knew all of these things that no one else knew, and he hoarded them, precious secrets, things he alone had. Secrets were power. But he shared them with Sirius, because Sirius needed to know.

Sometimes his scoundrel's ways got the best of him - his mask of stupidity that he let everyone believe got the better of him, or he got carried away in his acting.

It wasn't until they killed his protector that he ever really cared much about activity.

When they killed Sirius, Dung had nowhere left to turn. And Dung had never told him everything, never told him some of the secrets that could have saved him.

For his memory, Dung was willing to go out in a blaze of glory.

He swore away drinking and petty crimes.

He would go down fighting.

_The Stargazer_

He had never been very strong. Fast - wise - perhaps these things were attributes he had. But strength and magic were not his fortes.

He was smaller, paler, and had been born a runt. They had said he would die. He hadn't.

Not that he hadn't come close. But Hagrid had always helped with that. Hagrid had always been there on time. Even when the half-human had been a boy, and had wandered into the Forest, the Stargazer had helped him, teaching him secret ways through, and telling where the safe places were, and where certain creatures lay.

He was surprised when Hagrid began to tame the forest. When the boy who grew and became a friend calmed the thestrals that Firenze could not quite see, and brought in an acromantula that he held in his arms and spoke to. He and the half-man half-friend made an agreement to help one another.

Firenze knew the secret ways, but if he stumbled across the Aragog monster, he would not be able to fight back...and so Hagrid introduced him to his semi- tame creatures, with orders not to harm him.

He kept up his half of the pact, even when his own kind tried to kill him. He kept his word, and came to the school to teach.

Even when Hagrid came on the verge of destroying the peace of the forest that he had helped to make, Firenze tried to help him. It didn't work.

But after Firenze failed Hagrid, he made another pact, this time with himself. He would give up the ways of peace, of noninterference. These ways were what had caused him to fail the only friend who had stayed with him.

He was going to fight, if that was what it took to avenge Hagrid's death.

And that would be what it would take.

_The Fearful_

He had never imagined anything like this. Never.

When the Dark Lord had vanished, he had secretly rejoiced, and had renounced his Lord. He never imagined that that wasn't the end - that he would have to flee again.

He had made himself a good place in the world, teaching students the things they would need to know to survive in the world. He had kept the traditions going, despite the knowledge that he was probably only brewing more like the master he had forsaken.

But during the Tournament, the Mark began to burn again. And Igor Karkaroff knew that there was nowhere he could go where the Lord could not follow, and find him.

There was another way, a way that was offered to him by a girl he met in Egypt, after two years of running.

Just fight him, she had said. Fight him with us, and maybe we can win.

He hadn't been sure whether to believe or not. But Merlin damn him, he _wanted_ to.

And so he became the fifth, and sealed his fate, for better or worse.

He would fight.

_...so came their destinies..._


	2. The Recruit

**Five for Fighting  
  
Part Two**  
  
_Ginny, Egypt_  
  
Ginny Weasley was seventeen years old, and tired of doing nothing.  
  
This week had been one of the busiest of her life. First leaving school, and all that was associated with that - placating her poor mother, who was of course afraid that she'd follow in the twins' footsteps -  
  
No. That was not for her. Not what she wanted to do. Ginny Weasley would not. It was that simple, saying no. Something she wished she'd learned before.  
  
Almost as soon as she had Apparated to Egypt, before she was even able to find Bill, she had run into her old schoolteacher and family friend - and also a friend of Harry's. Remus Lupin had made her an offer that she could not resist, and then she had, without preamble, been given an assignment.  
  
She was supposed to recruit another man she had met, this one not nearly so friendly.  
  
Next in her adventures, she found Igor Karkaroff's wand at her throat, and between explanations had to repel several very nasty hexes that she was sure the Ministry would not approve of.  
  
But who gave a damn what the Ministry approved of, in any case?  
  
She convinced him, although it took a couple of hours and a very solid Leg- Locker curse, and then almost undid her work by laughing at the sheer absurdity of what happened next.  
  
He, Igor Karkaroff, asked her what he should do.  
  
This was how she found herself climbing up a dusty set of stairs in the middle of an Egyptian pyramid with a very ragged ex-Death Eater behind her, muttering something that sounded like Russian.  
  
It was very dark, and her torch was starting to go out.  
  
There was a muffled thump from behind her and then a horribly familiar voice growling, "Filthy - bastard - leave my - sister - _alone_ -"  
  
"Sorry," Ginny said to Karkaroff, without bothering to drag Bill off of him. "My brother. He's a little overprotective."  
  
Bill looked up at her with wide eyes and slowly moved back. Karkaroff straightened with as much dignity as he could muster.  
  
"Now?" Ginny said to Bill, a request for explanation.  
  
"Well, you are four hours late for meeting me," her brother said angrily. "And when I used the map, it said you were down this wing. You were alone. And so when I come up and find a scraggly-looking ex-convict behind you with his wand out -"  
  
"You had your wand out?" Ginny cut him off, turning to Karkaroff, who was looking rather enraged.  
  
"Your torch was going out," he said stiffly.  
  
Ginny shrugged and turned back to Bill.  
  
"I'm terribly sorry for not meeting you, Bill," she said. "Only I've got into a spot of employment and I've not much time."  
  
"You're working for him?"  
  
"No, quite the other way around. I can grab lunch with you tomorrow, but then I think we'll be headed out."  
  
She left him standing in the dark, positively flummoxed...effectively brushing him off.  
  
By the time she found Lupin again, it was midnight and he was accompanied by another old acquaintance, Mundungus Fletcher.  
  
_Lupin  
_  
Dung had changed, and Lupin hadn't known that. Hell, they'd _all_ changed in one way or another.  
  
Ginny! My God! He had remembered her as little more than a child. A Weasley and a Gryffindor, so very brave, and he knew a bit of her story, but - she was far from a girl now, no matter her age.  
  
Karkaroff's beard had grown out, tangled and whited so that he was almost unrecognizable.  
  
But Dung had changed. Dung had _changed_.  
  
He was clean-shaven, and from all accounts (and Remus John Lupin believed them, oh, he did) had been sober since Sirius died.  
  
_God. It still hurts to say that._  
  
He looked like any other man - like any other wizard - like any other friend of the Order. He looked neat and stern and Remus didn't recognize him at first, hadn't known who he was when Dung had approached him on the terrace in front of Grimmauld Place.  
  
And so they had five.  
  
Rather, they would have five. But Remus had counted them all. He knew where there was another who would join them.  
  
He had gone over his options. Tried to figure it out. And then he remembered Dumbledore speaking of a centaur...  
  
Firenze had sent a message back, but he had put charms on it for coding, so that no one but its intended recipient could read it.  
  
The four of them - Karkaroff, Dung, Remus, and Ginny - sat down in a small room and Remus pulled out the letter and set it on the table.  
  
_Mundungus  
_  
They all stared at the paper for a moment before Ginny took it and unrolled it carefully, looking down at it with a frown.  
  
"Simple charm," she said. "It needs a password."  
  
"How do you know?" Karkaroff asked in a hoarse voice.  
  
"Because that's what it is," she said simply, meeting his eyes. He looked down.  
  
"You're the only one who knows him, Ginny," Remus said. "What would be something that he would guess we would guess?"  
  
Ginny stared at the paper as if she hadn't heard him, and drew out her wand.  
  
"Hagrid," she said softly.  
  
Spiderwebbing out from where her wand had touched, the letters across the paper turned from gibberish to English.  
  
Remus stared at her and the paper for a moment. She drew back her wand and looked away.  
  
Dung pulled the scroll over to his side of the table and read aloud;  
  
_"Remus Lupin,  
  
My answer is yes. I will rendezvous with you on Wednesday of next week, at half past eleven at night, at the Hogsmeade station. Confirm with the same password.  
  
Firenze"_  
  
Remus blinked and nodded. Karkaroff shifted in his seat.  
  
"Who is this Firenze?" he asked.  
  
"A centaur," Ginny said. "He works for Dumbledore."  
  
The man stiffened and she shot him a withering look.  
  
_Karkaroff_  
  
It was difficult for him to take; the concept that these would be the people he would work with. Probably until he died. But this was work which he knew he had to do.  
  
The Remus Lupin fellow, he knew of through his work in The Circle. He could deal with the man. A reputation for being quiet but sharp.  
  
The girl was fierce, and not as defenseless as she looked. But she wouldn't get in his way, wouldn't scorn him. She was smart as well.  
  
And the other man...Mundungus Fletcher...Karkaroff found himself almost afraid of the him. But at the same time...he had the dark aura that had always interested and lured him. He was....not the kind of man Karkaroff wanted to get on the bad side of.  
  
The three of them, and a centaur.  
  
He would die in decent company, then.  
  
It was obvious that the other two men felt protective of the girl. But neither of them had fought her, and had her convince them to die for a cause.  
  
She hadn't directly asked him to die, but he knew that was what the job entailed.  
  
It was fighting, though. It was making a stand. He wasn't a moral man, wasn't a man with a hard concience. But he knew the difference between good and evil, and he knew he was evil.  
  
Karkaroff did not want to live a life of cowardice any longer.  
  
And more than that, he wanted to avenge his brother. But that was far in the past. An underlying motive, perhaps, that he was sure none of them knew of.  
  
That girl had convinced him to live a life of honor once more. To come out of the shadows. And for that, he respected her. And he knew that she needed no protection from the others.  
  
If anything, knowing what they would be plunging into, Karkaroff thought they might need _her_ protection.

_**Author's Note**_: Thank you to my reviewers so far. I hope that this will be a fic updated one to two parts a week, but due to the number of fics I have written/am writing (this is the 58th fic on my ff.net page), I make no promises. 


	3. The Meetings

**Five for Fighting  
  
Part Three**  
  
_Karkaroff, Hogsmeade_  
  
It was cold - but then, Igor had grown used to Egypt. That had been stifling for months, he had never been comfortable...but now he had grown used to it, and he would miss the heat.  
  
It was strange, being back in Europe - back in Britain. He asked Lupin how long it would be. Lupin gave him a look and a shrug.  
  
He looked up at the dark sky and decided it was going to start raining. He said this aloud. Ginny blinked and shrugged. Dung didn't react at all. Remus cast a glance to the sky and frowned, but said nothing.  
  
Silence was uncomfortable. Even in the pyramids, in hiding, there were always creaks and groans. Silence was painful. Silence meant that something was about to cave in, or that he was going crazy.  
  
There. _There_ was some noise. A clippy sort of sound. Yes, it was hoofsteps. Not much longer in this cold. He hoped.  
  
He could see the figure farther on down the station, skirting around the pools of light cast by magical streetlamps. Inky shadows, but this one was just a shade lighter, so Karkaroff could see that he was a fairly small centaur, and that he wasn't carrying anything.  
  
Each of the rest of them had something to carry with them. For Igor, it was his wand and a few talismans, hidden in various inner pockets of his cloak - pockets that couldn't be revealed unless you had the right combination of buttons done up. Ginny had a rucksack and her wand in her back pocket - she was wearing Muggle clothing, a shirt and jeans, underneath her cloak. Remus had a battered suitcase, full of papers and strange items on one side, with containers of potion on the other. Fletcher had his tattered brown coat, which held so many things in its seventeen pockets that Igor was sure it would be impossible to find anything without an _Accio_.  
  
But the centaur had nothing. Nothing.  
  
Firenze stopped a few feet away from them, his front two hooves forwards into the pool of light between them.  
  
Igor stared at him, at his pale, wild eyes, and felt a shiver down his spine.  
  
_Firenze_  
  
It was a long time before any of them spoke. A minute at least. And it was the girl, the fire-haired child who Firenze had once taught, who broke our silence.  
  
"The stars are veiled," she said.  
  
"Aptly," the centaur said. "These are dark times." Turning to the others, "I, as I am sure you know, am Firenze."  
  
"Yes," the white-bearded man said. Firenze assumed him to be Karkaroff, and had met Remus Lupin once in Dumbledore's office. Mundungus Fletcher was the other, and he stared blankly and almost eerily.  
  
"The password?" he asked finally. Firenze took another step forwards, the light cast over his face, bringing it into sharp relief.  
  
"It is the name of my dearest friend," he said. "Writing it into a spell is one matter, Mundungus Fletcher, but saying it is another, and I cannot do so without bringing myself great sadness."  
  
"How are we moving from here?" Karkaroff asked. "I mean, do you Apparate, Firenze?"  
  
"No," Firenze said. "I was not aware that Miss Weasley had passed her test, either."  
  
"I didn't," Ginny said. "I failed it. Had a bit of a tense moment. But I don't need a liscence. I Apparate fine. I didn't have enough to pay for a second try."  
  
Firenze nodded and looked to Lupin. "How, then?" he asked.  
  
"How much magic can you _do_?" Karkaroff asked as Lupin opened his mouth, quite rudely and frankly.  
  
"More than you," Firenze said contemptuously, a bit angry. "Just in different ways."  
  
"Be quiet, Karkaroff," Lupin said softly. "We'll travel by Floo, for now. Later, when we have to move quickly, we can take you by Apparition, Firenze. For now, we've got to think, and plan. Understood?"  
  
Sharp nods all around. Lupin looked up and down the dark street.  
  
"The Three Broomsticks will just be closing," he said. "Madam Rosmerta knows my name. It's been seventeen years since I've seen her, but that doesn't matter."  
  
"It's only time," Firenze said quietly. "Time matters little."  
  
Remus and Ginny nodded, and they set off down the darkened street, and away from that spot.  
  
_Ginny_  
  
"Where from here?" Karkaroff asked. "Lupin? Where are we going?"  
  
"Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place," Remus answered, peering in one of Rosmerta's windows and then moving to the door to knock.  
  
"But Harry -" Ginny began.  
  
"He won't mind," Remus said simply.  
  
The door opened and Madam Rosmerta's face peered out. "We're just closing -" she said hesitantly.  
  
"That's quite all right, Rosmerta," Remus said. "We've only got to use your Floo."  
  
"Remus Lupin?" she asked incredulously, and looked at the others. "And Miss Weasley - you should be in school -"  
  
"I quit," Ginny said flatly.  
  
"Mundungus Fletcher, the number of times I've told you never to come back -"  
  
"And the number you've then welcomed me with open arms," Dung said.  
  
"Only to have to kick you out again. And Professor Firenze, I presume."  
  
A nod from the centaur.  
  
"And I believe I don't know you," she said, turning to Karkaroff, who offered nothing. She pulled open the door and ushered them in.  
  
"Could you do me a favor, Rosmerta?" Remus asked. "Could you send Professor Dumbledore an owl and tell him we're at Padfoot's for the night?"  
  
"Dumbledore's off again," Rosmerta said. "It was the talk of the place today. And I've heard the name Padfoot from your mouth before, Remus Lupin, and I know who it refers to."  
  
"Then you'll also know his house belongs to Potter," Dung said, steely- eyed.  
  
"Where's he to this time?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Rumors as thick as Fudge. No way to tell, dear, you ought to know that. Go on then, if you're not going to tell me anything. I'll send the owl, but who knows if it'll get to him."  
  
"Thank you," Remus said.  
  
"Any owl from this village or yonder school will reach Albus Dumbledore," Firenze said, his face unreadable.  
  
Rosmerta nodded and handed Remus a bucket from behind her counter, full of green powder.  
  
And one by one, they vanished into the fire.  
  
_Remus, Grimmauld Place  
_  
They arrived whole, although Firenze was looking puzzled and a bit dizzied from the transportation. Harry was in the kitchen, and he looked up as Remus came in.  
  
"Hello," he said. "Any message this time?"  
  
Remus shook his head mutely. "No more news," he said. "Can we stay the night here, Harry? We need somewhere safe?"  
  
Harry nodded. "Kreacher died last week, so no worry about him any longer. I imagine he wanted to be put up on the wall with his family. Did you say we?"  
  
"Five of us," Remus said. "Dung and I've finally managed to get a few together to fight."  
  
"Well, I'm afraid I can't help you any, I haven't gotten any leads, and I'm off tomorrow. But you can stay as long as you like. Who are they? Anyone I know?"  
  
"I'd say," Remus said dryly. "Ginny, Firenze, and Karkaroff."  
  
Harry gave him a flat look. "You're not joking," he said. "God, Remus, you're crazy. Karkaroff?"  
  
"He's well trained in Dark Arts and knows Voldemort better than anyone else would. Anyone else who's available. Where are you going?"  
  
"Classified," Harry said. "I actually can't say. I could try to speak the name of the place, but I can't even drop hints. I'm meeting Dumbledore."  
  
"Think he's onto something?"  
  
"It would take that to get him out of Hogwarts. Are you going to be planning tonight, or could I borrow Ginny?"  
  
"It's late enough that I was thinking we'd just sleep, and plan in the morning," Remus said. "They're in the den, I can fetch her -"  
  
"She'll come if you mention where I am," Harry said. "I'm not going anywhere."  
  
"All right," Remus said. Then, after a moment, "Something's different with you today."  
  
"It's been a long afternoon," Harry said. "You have no idea how much has gone wrong with my plans." He moved away from the cupboard he'd been standing in front of, setting a half-empty bottle of firewhiskey on the table underneath a single flickering candle.  
  
"Dung could tell you half a million reasons not to drink that, Harry," Remus said.  
  
"And I could tell him half a million that I should," he answered. "I'm not a heavy drinker, Remus, you know that."  
  
With a nod and a lifted hand, Remus moved out. 


	4. The Night

**Five for Fighting  
  
Part Four**  
  
_Ginny_  
  
She left them by the fire, pretending to be going off to sleep. She was sure they knew that wasn't where she was going - Remus, in any case, and Dung - but she didn't care.  
  
Harry's back was to the half-open door, and she watched him raise a bottle to his lips and let the firewhiskey pour into his mouth - and then he stopped, lowered the bottle, turned to look at her.  
  
She took her hand off the doorframe and moved into the room, slowly. It was lit by only one candle, and a small one, at that. Its shadows made Harry's face look almost angry.  
  
"You shouldn't have left school," he said softly.  
  
"Oh, Harry," she whispered. "I didn't come so that you could yell at me."  
  
"I didn't wait for you so I could yell at you, either," he said. "But I mean - I shouldn't have left. I should have asked Dumbledore for a teaching job. I could have taken Defense Against Dark Arts -"  
  
"Snape's good at it," Ginny said, almost defensively. "He's not like he was teaching Potions. He's - he's fair about it."  
  
"You didn't come to talk about school," he said, with a crooked smile.  
  
"No," she agreed.  
  
"Come on." He moved his hand and the chair to his right pulled out without its usual scraping sound. "Sit down. Let's talk."  
  
She did, silently - sat and leaned her head back against the chair and closed her eyes, for a moment.  
  
"You sure about this, Gin?" he asked after a moment. His voice was uncharacteristically gentle. She looked at him. He looked extremely serious and almost sad. Almost. That was the kind of emotion he didn't really show anymore.  
  
"I'm sure," she said. "You taught me well enough."  
  
He winced a bit. "Don't," he said. "If you get hurt, you know I'll blame myself."  
  
"It's stupid," she said. "But it's just like you. You always blame yourself. My choice, my risk, Harry. And I won't get hurt."  
  
"How's your family holding up?"  
  
"Decently, considering," Ginny sighed. "Mum thinks I'm going Fred and George's way. I had to leave without meeting Bill like I promised - I left him a note, but he won't really understand. Charlie's in charge of one of the dragon teams and he's sending word from the front. I imagine you've probably seen more of Ron than I have -"  
  
A grim nod.  
  
"- but Dad isn't good, Harry, he really isn't. They say at work that he completely blames himself and -"  
  
"I'll talk to him," Harry interrupted. "He ought to know it's my fault."  
  
"It wasn't," Ginny whispered.  
  
"Let's talk about something else, then."  
  
"How's the Order going?"  
  
"Not very well. You know that, Gin. We've mostly broken up. Dumbledore's always off somewhere, Snape is busy at the school. Dung and Remus are occupied, obviously. Most of us are dead, and those that aren't -"  
  
"Talk to Dumbledore about getting the Army to join," Ginny insisted. "Most of them would, Harry."  
  
"So many are still in school -"  
  
"It's like we said. Voldemort isn't going to ask how old anyone is before killing them. Even Zacharius -"  
  
"I just don't think I can ask them to do that. They'd get killed, and - I brought them together, Gin. They're my people, they're my Army as much as Dumbledore's -"  
  
"We need more people on the front and you know it. The five of us, and you, and Dumbledore, and a couple more from the order - Tonks, Kingsley - it's not enough. Maybe eleven of us, now, fighting actively. And only a few in any semblance of organization. You and Dumbledore, the Auror Order, and the five of us, now, too. We need more. A real army. Just talk to him about it."  
  
"I will." A sigh. "Against my better judgement. I will."  
  
"Owl me his response," Ginny said. "I can help with the recruiting. When the five of us have time."  
  
"Ginny -" His voice broke a little, and in the dim candlelight she could see his eyes gleam. He reached out a hand slowly to touch her cheek. She gave a little shiver at how cold his hands were. "Don't get hurt, okay?" he whispered. "Don't do anything - anything foolish, or reckless, or heroic - Merlin damn it, Ginny, don't get hurt."  
  
She stood from her chair so quickly it almost fell and put her arms around him tightly. The candle, already dimmed, flickered and died at the sudden movement. She heard a little gasp, and he stood too, slowly, his chair scraping back loudly, awkwardly putting his arms around her as well. He was still a bit taller than she was - but she hooked her chin on his shoulder and felt sobs rising in her throat. She could feel him, too, shaking a little, enough that she could tell he was still a man, that he wasn't impenetrable.  
  
"We should both sleep," he whispered after a while into her hair, and she felt his lips brush against her cheek. And then she felt his arms pull smoothly away, and let hers fall to her side.  
  
She saw him slip through the barely-open door, so thin he didn't even touch it. Just like a little ghost.  
  
She stood in the dark for a long time before following him out herself.  
  
_Mundungus_  
  
He heard soft footsteps from the kitchen almost an hour after the others had gone up to bed. Ginny saw him by the fire and stopped.  
  
"They've all gone to get some rest," he told her. "You should too. Is Harry still in the kitchen?"  
  
"No, he's gone to sleep as well," she said. Mundungus felt his mouth twist. Of course, he wouldn't have heard Harry go past. Like a ghost, the boy was. Not boy. Man. Young man, perhaps.  
  
And he very much doubted that Harry would sleep. He had come to know him better than to think that.  
  
"Go on, then," he told her a bit gruffly.  
  
"Don't brood all night," Ginny said. "It's not good for you to think that way."  
  
She was gone, and he heard her footsteps on the stairs.  
  
"Smart girl," he muttered to himself, and pulled himself out of the chair to go find a room of his own.  
  
_Karkaroff_  
  
It was difficult to sleep, in a house so clearly once dark. He was sure that Black, before his death, and Potter following, had cleaned out as much as they could. But neither of them had the ability to cleanse the aura that Karkaroff felt. Both Potter and Black, he was sure, had too much darkness in their own souls to do something like that.  
  
He could _feel_ it, like an thin sheen of oil on top of cool water. Like a sprinkling of dirt on a clean floor.  
  
The Dark Mark burned angrily on his arm. He knew, somewhere across the country, that Severus Snape felt the same pain.  
  
It was a house too large for comfort. He was sure there were things still, in the depths of unopened rooms and secret passages, that had not been cleaned, had not been moved.  
  
There were no windows. Of this he was glad. Windows, after Egypt, would have made him uneasy. Windows were just another peephole for an enemy, just another way for danger to creep in.  
  
He didn't like the blank portrait on the wall, because it seemed to be occupied.  
  
He wished vaguely that, like some nights in the Circle, with a mission in the morning and plans in the night and excuses to cover, that he was sleeping with the protection of others around him. With his fellow Death Eaters - or now, others - what were they to call themselves? - sleeping or staring at the sky or into the fire, all around him. Knowing that when he slept, he wouldn't be defenseless.  
  
Furthermore, he wished he could remember some warding spells, and wished that he could use the ones he had known without fear of killing his four new - _companions_.  
  
_Remus  
_  
It was hard to be in Grimmauld Place again. He had been many times before, but he hadn't slept there very often, and then it was always full with Order members, with people he trusted.  
  
It wasn't that he didn't trust Ginny and Harry and Dung, but he missed the prescences of Kingsley and Nympha - _Tonks_ - and more than anything, he missed having Sirius in the next room, missed hearing him toss and turn, missed going in to him and waking him up when he was having a nightmare, even. But that was neither here nor there - long ago. Three years.  
  
_God, oh, God, I miss him -_  
  
Remus squeezed his eyes shut to hold back floods that he had not let go of since the September after Sirius had -  
  
_- died -  
_  
And slept.  
  
Author's Note: Thank you to my reviewers...  
  
Ky-lin - Do you have a translation of your story from German to English? I always try to read my reviewers' material, and I tried to use a free translation site, but it went all wacko on me.  
  
Next part should be up in a few days, I hope... 


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